Michelle's corner

51,128 including the barely started preface and the completed concluding statement.

What this means is that all the plot elements are done. The xx, yy and zz chapters now have numbers and all is in place.

There is still a chunk of work to do, with regards tying in the end pieces and there is another chunk of padding to do. Also, as per the post-it note, the ending of Chapter 8 has to be revisited.

So, now I take a break for a cup of coffee, negotiate food with my Mother, and then come back to finish that linkage and get it to the point where I'm happy with it. After that, the printer gets another hammering and I go through the whole thing again to give it another re-work.

I should be able to complete all that during the short evenings I have next week, so I expect to have a copy out with the alpha readers by next weekend. I would hope, sometime Oct 24th-ish, to get it to the editor, then have her feedback in early November, and have that merged and with the publisher mid November. Possibly books in my hand mid December, ready to post to the contributors for Christmas.

And that should be the series, complete.

I had hoped to have it out by October to mark the twelve month anniversary of, "The Companion," but it wasn't to be. Nevertheless, this will be a quarter of a million words published in a little over twelve months, with favourable reviews; not stellar, but certainly positive. That's nothing to sneeze at.

There are two other books lined up to be worked on. One is the fantasy comedy, "The Lucky Pig," and the other is the serious fantasy, "The White Wizard," two chapters of which are already written; but were done in January, and need re-writing because I've learned a lot since then.

That is, however, if I carry on writing. There are a number of things on my mind, and I'm thinking of hanging up the quill. It has been something I've been turning over in my head for many months, partially as a result of what I've been learning about the state of the modern book world.  We'll see, but I'm not feeling very positive about being a writer at the moment.